Improvement in magazine fire-arms



P. BOYNTON.

. Magazine Fire-Arm No. 23,226. Patented Mar. 15, 1859.

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ewowow N. PETERS, PNOTO-UTHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIoE.

PAUL BOYNTON, OF CANTON, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN MA'GAZINE FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 23,226, dated March 15,1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL BOYNTON, of Canton, in the county of St.Lawrence and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Breech-Loadin g Fire- Arms; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification, in which- Figure l is a side view of a pistol with theprimer in section. Fig. 2 is a top view of the same. Fig. 3 is alongitudinal central section of the same. Fig. 4 is a similar section ofthe breech and adjacent parts, exhibiting them in a different position.Fig. 5 is a transverse section of the same in the plane indicated by theline 00 w in Fig 3.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre-' sponding parts in theseveral figures.

This invention consists in certain means of providing for the loading offire-arms at the breech with loose powder from a magazine within thestock and with balls from a magazine under the barrel, whereby theoperations of firing and reloading may be repeated very rapidly and withperfect safety.

It also consists in an improved contrivance applied in combination witha movable breech, for the purpose of applying the percussion priming bythe act of cooking the hammer.

To enable others to make and use myinvention, I will proceed to describeits construction and operation.

In carrying out my invention I use a chambered breech, A, of the faucetkind, (shown in Figs. 3 and 4,) fitted into a stout socket-piece, B,which may be made in the same piece with the barrel D, or have thebarrel screwed into it or otherwise attached, and which serves as ameans of attaching the stock 0 and barrel. From the interior of thetransverse socket of the piece B, in which the breech A is fitted, thereis a passage, a, directly opposite to the barrel, communicating with thepowder-magazine E, which consists of a cavity of suitable size formedwithin the stock, and having a suitable opening in one side for fillingit, said opening being closed by a door or valve, 0.

The chamber 0 of the breech is of just sufficient length to receive thenecessary charge of powder, and the breech must be of such di ameter aswill leave sufficient depth of meta at b, in the rear of the chamber, toresist the force of the discharge.

The breech has attached on the left side of the weapon a lever, F, bywhich the chamber 0 can be brought into communication with the passagea, as shown in Fig. 4, to be loaded with powder, or in communicationwith the barrel, to a condition for firing, as shown in Fig. 3; and thesaid lever is made elastic laterally, that it may look the breech withthe chambenin the last-mentioned condition by springing onto a stop-pin,d, on one side of the barrel. Upon the rifle this lever should lie alongthe breech on the curve thereof, entirely out of the way, on theopposite side from the hammer, and is turned upward instead of down, butwith precisely the same effect as when the'lever is placed on thebarrel.

G is the ball-magazine, consisting of a tube of a caliber large enoughfor the balls to pass easily through, said magazine being arrangedimmediately below and parallel with the barrel, and extending from asteel slide, H, which works up and down in a slot, h, in the socketpiecein front of the breech A, forward to the muzzle, orto as great a lengthas may be desired, and being fitted at its front end with a cap, f,which is made movable, for the purpose of fillingthe magazine withballs.

The slide H, which is for the purpose of loading the weapon, has a hole,g, bored through it of a proper size to receive the balls w w one at atime, its thickness also being just sufficient to contain the ball, thecircumference of which should be slightly greater than that of the boreof the barrel, in order that it may not drop through the latter; and thesaid slide is made slightly taper, as shown in Figs. 3and 4, for thepurpose of enabling it to fit the slot it very closely to make a tightjoint with the barrel and chamber around the hole gwhen the latter isopposite the barrel, as shown in Fig. 3. The said slide is capable ofsuch a length of movement as will permit its hole 9 to be brought to aposition opposite the magazine G, as shown in Fig. 4, such movementbeing limited by a pin, 2', on the back part of the slide and a slottedplate, j, secured to the bottom of the socket-piece B. To provide forthis movement the said slide is provided with cheek-pieces k k, (shownin Figs. 2 and 5,) which are fitted to work in grooves in the exteriorof the socket-piece, and on which are cars l I, one on each, one ofwhich is operated upon by horns m n on a plate, I, secured to one end ofthe faucet-like breech, and the other by corresponding horns on thelever F, for the purpose of moving the said slide up and down.

J, Figs. 1 and 2, is the priming-box, intended to contain pill-priming,having an opening, 19, in the bottom just large enough for the passageof the pills one at a time, terminating in a collar or band, g, which isfitted to turn on a portion of the breech A, which is made to protrudethrough the right-hand side of the socket-piece B, said collar or bandbeing confined by a screw, y, and washer z. The said box J is connectedwith the hammer K by a link, t. Its band g has a hole, 1", for oiling,and an opening, 8, which, when the hammer is down, is brought oppositeto the vent to in the breech, so that the point of the hammer willstrike through it.

When the hammer is cooked while the chamber is in communication with thebarrel, it, by its connection 15, brings the opening 19 of thepriming-box opposite to the vent, so that a pill may drop into the smallcavity 27, which is provided at the mouth of the vent to receive it, andwhich is sufficiently deep to prevent the pill in it from interferingwith the turning of the band q.

The box J is filled with priming through an opening in the top, which isfitted with a stopper.

The hammer and lock of the weapon are, or may be, of the kind mostcommonly used.

The operations of loading and firing are as follows: The hammer being athalf-cock, the

lever F is' first thrown back by a downward motion from the positionrepresented in Figs. 2 and 3 to turn the breech to a position to bringthe chamber 0 into communication with the passage a of thepowder-magazine; and this movement causes the horns m n on the saidlever and plate I, by their action on the cars l l, to push down theslide H to a position in which the opening g is in communication withthe ball-magazine. The breech and slide are stopped in the properposition by the pin i arriving at the bottom of the slot in the plate j.The piece is then held muzzle downward to cause the chamber 0 to befilled with powder, and when this has been done, andwhile the piece isstill held in the same position, the lever F is turned half-way back,which closes the chamber 0, with the proper measured charge within it,without moving the slide H, which is left undisturbed by there beingaproper distance between the horns m and n. While the lever F is in thelast-mentioned position the piece is inverted or held muzzle upward topermit a ball to enter the hole g in the slide H, and in this positionof the piece the lever is moved back the remainder of the distance andlocked by the catch d, thus bringing the chamber 0 again into line withand in direct communication with the barrel, and causin g the horns m n,by their action on the cars l l, to force up the slide to the positionin which the hole 9 is in direct communication between the chamber andbarrel.

The piece, being now loaded, may be held in any position till it isdesired to fire. When the hammer remains at half-cock the vent is closedby the band q of the priming-box; but by cocking it a pill is depositedin the cavity 4; of the vent, and when the trigger is drawn the hammerin its fall moves forward the priming box and exposes the primed ventthrough the opening 8, so that as the hammer comes down it explodes thepill and fires the piece.

In firing there is not the slightest danger of the fire reaching thepowder-magazine, as the breech is ground in its socket with a perfectjoint, and whatever reaction is produced upon it by the explosion of thecharge only tends to make it close tighter around the passage (0.

The ball-magazine may be fitted with a spiral spring, which would forcethe balls into the hole in the slide H, without the necessity of holdingthe piece muzzle upward, as hereinbefore described.

I do not claim, broadly, the arrangement of a powder-magazine in thebreech of a gun, or of a ball-magazine under and parallel with thebarrel, nor yet the use of the slide H to load the bullets; but

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. Combining thepowder-magazine in the stock with the barrel of afire-arm by means of the faucet-like chambered breech, applied andoperating as described, to measure its own charge.

2. Combining the bullet-loadin gslide H with the faucet-like chamberedbreech by means of i the ears on the slide and the horns m n attached tothe breech, that the slide may be operated, in combination with thebreech, in the manner herein specified.

3. The combination, with the faucet-like breech, of the priming-box Jand its perforated collar q, operated by a connection with the hammer,substantially as herein described.

' PAUL BOYNTON.

W'itnesses:

W. O. Ooorce, ERSKINE P. PIERCE.

